Nepal Finance Minister defends huge size of the budget

Kathmandu, Sept 21 (ANI): A day after presented the big-size budget, Nepal’’s Finance Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai defended it saying that it was necessary to bring about economic changes in keeping with the heightened aspirations of the people following the establishment of republic. During a press meet here on Saturday, Dr Bhattarai said, “To build a new Nepal, we had to have ambitious budget.” He expected larger contribution from foreign donors since the development partners, too, were ”keen to see peaceful and prosperous Nepal.” He had presented Rs 236 billion budget - up from Rs 169 billion budget a year ago. The budget has aimed to raise Rs 129 billion revenue (up from Rs 105 billion collected in the previous fiscal year) and obtain Rs 47 billion of foreign grants and Rs 18 billion of foreign loan. The budget deficit will stand at Rs 41 billion of which the budget aims to raise Rs 12 billion from reforms in revenue administration and Rs three billion from existing cash reserve. The remaining Rs 25 billion will be mobilized as internal loan. “All these figures are within the accepted international standard and are projected on the basis of possibilities,” he said. He clarified that multi-rate of VAT could not be introduced in this budget due to lack of necessary homework for its implementation, Nepalnews reported. (ANI)